RECIPE: Rice pudding

VeganMofo17
Make (or eat!) a traditional local dish.

When I was thinking about a traditional Belgian dish, I immediately thought about seitan stew or vol-au-vent , but since I already used these two dishes for VeganMoFo, I had to think about something else… After spending some time on google I thought about ‘knapkoeken’ (cookies) or smurfentaart (smurfs pie – it’s an apricot pie topped with cream and white chocolate).  But eventually I thought about rice pudding! Rice pudding might not be traditional for the area I live in, but it is a typical Belgian dessert. We already ate rice pudding in the 16th century, as shown in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting ‘De Boerenbruiloft’ (The Peasant Wedding). In this painting a kid is licking it’s bowl and I completely understand this when I’ve just finished a bowl of rice pudding. In Belgium there’s this saying that even in heaven they eat a bowl of rice pudding every day, with golden spoons.

Rice pudding

6 portions

150 gr dessert rice (or risotto rice)

900 ml oat- or almond milk
1 bag vanilla sugar or 1 vanilla pod

50 gr brown sugar

pinch of salt

if desired, some saffron

1 tbsp vanille pudding powder

if desired, some cinnamon or extra brown sugar

Bring all ingredients, except for the pudding powder and extra sugar/cinnamon, to a boil on medium heat. Let it simmer for about 40 minutes and stir regularly.

In the last 3 minutes you add the pudding powder and you keep stirring.

Serve in small bowls and sprinkle some sugar or cinnamon over it.

Rice pudding is also delicious with some raisons mixed in.

For this recipe I used Sofie‘s rice pie as a guide.